Valkyria Chronicles IV

[Cross]

The story of the first game is about the titular Valkyria, a race of big-tittied magical anime girls who can turn the tide of war. It even has a beach episode.

No

You'll have to forgive me for not being able to appreciate the gritty war drama with scenes like this.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Is this worth it?

Yes, but play VC1 first to get introduced to the battle system and setting. VC4 builds upon that, both story and gameplay wise. It fixes the scout rush problem and the level design is much more involved more most of the duration of the game. Just beware that the first few hours of VC4's story has juvenile antics but then it picks up once it begins snowing. From then on I became really invested.

 

[Perkel]

You'll have to forgive me for not being able to appreciate the gritty war drama with scenes like this.

It's not and never was gritty war drama though it sometimes meanders into that direction.
It is really hard to explain the theme because VC1 theme is really special and part of the reason why game is revered.
I'm yet to play single game that replicated this theme.

It's like trying to explain to you there is something different behind planescape torment than jrpg gameplay with bombastic spells, 23 talk tree options, how many companions it has, how long the game is.

It's in the way Deionarra talk to the nameless one. It's in the way Morte hides truth from you, It's in the way other versions of the nameless one impact world you experience.

VC1 isn't loved because it has anime tropes and it does have some anime tropes. It is the unique nature of it that is loved here coupled with really fun gameplay system.

VC2/3 on other hand didn't have that unique nature and focused on gameplay and fans didn't like it precisely because it lost the charm VC1 had and the anime tropes you talk about destroyed its charm. To the point where even creators after failing with VC2 and VC3 went back and recreated whole process to make VC4 in order to replicate that unique nature it had.

And we can't talk about the series without Welkin. He is the Yang from TLOGH in a very similar way. He is odd duck that would rather be on the filed looking to categorize bugs and plants than as a commander of squad. It sounds whimsical and it is and yet this very special quirk of his character that in 99% of cases would lead to some stupid trope is just great exploration of differently focused mind that has entirely different motivations in life compared to "normal" people and how this affect his tank unit. If it wasn't more clear Welkin - Wen-li.

And it is rare case of perfect games. Like HOMM3. The creators of it executed everything excellently to the point where you can't say that game has bad side. Yes there is scout exploit but such exploits HOMM3 also had and there is not a more perfect game as HOMM3.

 

[Perkel]

I think i found better analogy.

It is like Forest Gump.

It's how the story is told and not what the story is all about.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The story of the first game is about the titular Valkyria, a race of big-tittied magical anime girls who can turn the tide of war. It even has a beach episode.

No

You'll have to forgive me for not being able to appreciate the gritty war drama with scenes like this.

Hey, Apocalypse Now has party and surfing scenes.

 

[Maxie]

in a sufficiently gritty war drama, it's rather tasteless to say anyone is 'winning' at any given point, simply because it focuses so much on individuals suffering no matter what
makes no sense to put gritty war drama in video games, because you play these precisely to beat challenges and win scenarios